NextDrop to monitor all water valves in Bengaluru with BWSSB tie-up

The company now has over 65,000 users in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Hubballi-Dharwad subscribed to its service.Evelyn Fok | ET Bureau | August 29, 2015, 13:06 IST

The Kerala government had planned to set up a water processing unit on private-public participation mode, but due to protest from the opposition LDF, the plan was shunned.file photo by Kevin Antao)NextDrop, a three year-old startup that aggregates water data to make smart predictions about water supply, is signing a tender with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to monitor all water valves across Bengaluru.

This is an example of how startups working on critical civic issues can collaborate with the government to affect change on the ground, particularly in the context of Smart Cities, as the details of the Smart Cities Mission are getting sketched out.

“The city is very forward thinking, and has worked hard to help startups like us participate in public infrastructure,“ said Anu Sridharan, co founder and CEO of the startup.

The company now has over 65,000 users in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and Hubballi-Dharwad subscribed to its service.“Officials are keen to make change, and we figured out ways to de-risk it for them.“

Founded by three American expats in Hubli-Dharwad district in 2012, NextDrop's premise is simple - by collecting data on water supply, it notifies individuals and corporations when water is going to arrive, something sorely needed in the public provision of basic utilities in water-scarce areas.

Over the past few months, it has been piloting its services with 40% of water valves in the city, which will now be expanded to cover all 8,000 valves.

With this partnership, engineers at the BWSSB no longer have to manually monitor over a hundred valves every day, and can instead use a smart dashboard that displays real-time data on water supply across the city. This allows them to more effectively address customer com plaints and work on improving the city's water infrastructure as a whole.

“The most remarkable change in the BWSSB has been the acceptance of the new technology by the staff,“ commented PN Ravindra, executive engineer at the BWSSB, who is in charge of the department's initiatives focused on new innovations. “Good analytics of data collected would form the basis of building model cities in the future.“

NextDrop hopes to reach over 3,00,000 subscriptions over the next few months. A longer-term, multi-year contract with the BWSSB is also on the cards.